Philippine conflict-displaced on Mindanao now hit by floods

IRIN: Still recovering from three weeks of fighting between government troops and Muslim separatists that left tens of thousands displaced, battle-scarred Zamboanga region in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is now dealing with flooding in already congested evacuation centres.

Rains brought by the annual southwest May-October monsoon and the effects of Typhoon Danas (locally known as Ramil) starting on 4 October wreaked havoc on the islands of Western and Central Visayas, Palawan and Mindanao, affecting close to 138,000 people and displacing 100,000, according to the government’s latest update on 10 October.

Worst-hit was the Zamboanga peninsula in Minadao, which includes the port city of Zamboanga where an almost month-long siege displaced about 119,000 people in the city plus another 8,100 in neighbouring Basilan Province, killing a total of 140 as of 29 September.

...The two sides are negotiating for the creation of what is envisioned to be an expanded autonomous region for Mindanao's Muslim population that would supersede the one handed to the MNLF, a development that Nur Misuari, its founder, and a number of fighters oppose...

The Zamboanga Peninsula on Mindanao, by Scorpion prinz, Wikimmedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license